'The Celebrity Apprentice' - No crap! Maria Kanellis is fired

by jmaloni

Behind the Screens with Joshua Maloni

Mon, May 17th 2010 02:00 pm

Maria Kanellis (NBC photo by Mitch Haaseth)

Despite her
rather stellar showing on tasks in "The Celebrity Apprentice," Donald Trump
fired former WWE Diva Maria Kanellis after she made a comment about contestant
Curtis Stone and his, ahem, bowel movements.

Both Trump and Stone considered the remark something of a low blow.

Kanellis was
surprised an off-the-cuff comment led to her dismissal.

"It was
big-time a letdown," she said in a phone interview. "I - you know, people make
comments all the time in the boardroom, that it - don't belong in a work
environment or - you know, but we just like to have fun in there, because
that's not our full-time job. We're there. We're working for charity, but it's
not our full-time job.

"So, some of
the comments I've heard in the past in the boardroom had been 100 times worse
than what I said. And so, I was a bit surprised. It was supposed to be a joke,
but it didn't turn out that way. People have different senses of humor. And so,
I was very upset. I was crying. I was just - I was mad, you know a whole slew
of emotions."

Though famous
for portraying a character, a wrestling star, Kanellis said her intention in
joining "The Celebrity Apprentice" cast was not so much about revealing the
real Maria as it was raising money and awareness for her charity of choice.

"Well, the
first thing was just doing stuff for charity. I've always like Make-A-Wish
Foundation, so to be able to work for them was great. And I did make a bit of
money for them, not as much as I would have like, but I did make a bit of money
for them," she said. "But, it was also nice to start showing that side of me
that, you know, is me and is the real me. And I'm quirky and weird at times,
but you know - and also I grew up where it was a very hard working family. So,
doing the manual labor was so much easier than some of the other stuff, so I
was happy for that."

Kanellis is now
pursuing a career in music. She hopes her time on the NBC reality series will
help spread the news of her musical prowess. She may also return to television
in the near future.

"Yeah. I'm
working on getting my show picked up right now," Kanellis said. "I'm starting a
rock band and so I want to show that to the world and the trials and
tribulations of finding a band, and finding a band that works together, so
there's that.

"I also have my
CD that just came out on iTunes in April, so it's a four-song EP, it's rock
music, (unintelligible) lyrics, all kinds of fun, and I'm the lead singer on
it. So - it's called ‘Seven Sins' and it's my baby, so I plan on going out on
tour with that end of the summer, beginning of the fall. So I'm going to be
doing that as well, alongside some new music as well.

"But yeah, I
definitely want to do more on-camera stuff and auditioning all the time for
movies and things such as that, too."